NMLA and Lending

The National Marine Lenders Association is a trade association of boat lending specialists. Members include financial institutions such as commercial banks, private financing firms, savings and loan companies, credit unions and retail service companies. Members extend or originate credit to consumers, retailers/dealers and makers of recreational boats and equipment.

Salt Lake City-based MyFinanceGuys.com is now offering dealer-direct retail financing services to marine dealers in all 50 states, the company reported. MyFinanceGuys.com has been offering consumer finance “backroom services” for companies such as MasterCraft and Centurion, and is expanding its reach. “The most challenging thing about today’s market is the severe lack of liquidity,” president…more

Accu-Router has a new alliance with National Machine Tool Finance of Elk Grove Village, Ill., meaning Accu-Router applicants will have instant access to a network of funding sources tailored to their credit profile. National Machine Tool Finance offers a variety of financing approaches and durations to meet each customer’s needs. Accu-Router designs, builds and services…more

Figures provided by FICO Inc. show that 25.5 percent of consumers – nearly 43.4 million people – now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. “I don’t get paid for loan applications; I get paid for closings,” Ritch Workman, a Melbourne, Fla., mortgage broker, told the Associated…more

The National Marine Bankers Association’s founding president Don Wynne Mattocks died May 23 in Durham, N.C., after a six-month battle with leukemia. He was 68. Mattocks co-founded the NMBA in 1979 and remained director emeritus until his death. He helped pave the way for lending for smaller recreational pleasure boats and fostered an alliance between…more

Bank of America discontinued its indirect retail lending through marine dealers earlier this week, but will continue to offer direct consumer financing on marine products through its online e-lending channel at bankofamerica.com. “We remain committed to the industry and continue to offer wholesale, or floorplan, financing to marine dealers,” Bank of America spokesman Jefferson George…more

A Trade Only Today Web brief on Friday, May 7, misstated that M&T Bank was entering marine wholesale finance on a limited basis. “M&T has a couple of marine dealers who receive both retail and wholesale finance through the bank, but those are long-term bank relationships,” said Chet Bridger, vice president of corporate communications at…more

A new review of marine lending by the National Marine Bankers Association makes a realistic assessment of the recession’s impact on the boating and finance markets, but also points out that a large percentage of Americans continue to embrace the lifestyle. “We are starting to see a slight opening in the availability of consumer credit…more

As the industry’s distribution and sales models continue to evolve, Dealer Financial Services Group is adapting its financing programs. DFSG, a division of Newcoast Financial Services, will make available to manufacturers that sell factory-direct to consumers the same retail finance program offered to its dealers. “[The program] gives manufacturers a retail outlet and all the…more

A new name – Nova Financial Services – has entered the marine industry as a source of floorplan financing for builders and dealers, the company told Soundings Trade Only this morning. With the backing of Bronlen Financial Group of Arizona, the new Birmingham, Ala.-based company has started working with a few builders on floorplan financing,…more

There is a question about what happens to the bonus money bankers receive this year. Will they return to flashy spending or invest it more conservatively, Paul Sullivan asks in his recent New York Times column. Bonus pools are climbing again. Goldman Sachs recently disclosed that its average employee would receive nearly $500,000 in bonus…more